[To better cover the technical talents of season 6, we've brought on  Dr. Goddess, a guest columnist with decades of dance experience. She will share her dance-pertise in a weekly column recapping and reviewing So You Think You Can Dance with an eye on technique.]

Fierce competition tends to make performers work harder and better. This week proved both grueling and inspirational for the dancers who aspire to be in the Top 10 of So You Think You Can Dance!

Ryan DiLello and Ellenore Scott started the show with a fabulous Lindy Hop from new choreographer, Carla Heiney. I am loving the new choreographers this season! All of them have been wonderful and Carla's addition was great, especially since the Lindy Hop has not been seen on the show since season 3. That's just shameful! But with high kicks, sharp spins and "coffee grinders with front flairs", Ellenore and Ryan demonstrated the kind of sustained expertise and showmanship that will have them coasting right into the national tour. Here's a special nod to Frank Manny, one of the creators of the Lindy Hop. In their next Broadway number with Spencer Lift, Ryan and Ellenore were absolutely superb as they mastered the "three C's" of Broadway---character, choreography and chemistry. Amen, Top 10!

Kathryn McCormick and Legacy Perez performed very well in a Sonya Tayeh jazz routine. Legacy opened the number with his stellar crab walks (not jazz but...) and Kathryn looked as though she was dancing for her life, pulling every power move and sexy twist from her hips. I disagree with the judges, though. For me, it looked more like a photo shoot with a ton of lifts for great still shots than a fluid dance piece. Legacy had nothing but B-boy moves in between each lift---and that is not jazz. When Nigel talked about his "musicality", I had to rewind and found it was five seconds of the only non-B-boy choreography Legacy had to do. Review the tape and you will see how weak he performed his barrel turn. I swear, that boy is lucky!

But by the second performance, the Viennese waltz by Jean-Marc Generaux and France Mousseau, Legacy was back to crying (and fooling the judges). All of them said he was technically off but Nigel admitted he had to "turn a blind eye to things that weren't as good." Not to worry, Nigel, you all have been doing this to Legacy all season and I, for one, applaud you on such willful blindness and blatantly demonstrated bias. You all act like you have never had a B-Boy on the show before, sheesh! In any event, my "work hard" award for the day goes to Kathryn, whose lines, power moves, flips and overall graceful presentation should earn her a spot in the Top 10.

Victor Smalley and Karen Hauer did a fabulous, fabulous tango choreographed by Tony Meredith and Mary Lapatin. Everything about their performance was stellar. Not perfect but stellar. The costume, attitude, stance, top line positioning and punctuated movements were just amazing.

Unfortunately, their second hip hop piece with Laurieann Gibson did not go over so well. The judges admitted they danced with fire, commitment and intensity but complained that the music did not seem to match the choreography. I disagree. This is the same type of lyrical hip hop bravado that Tabitha and Napoleon D'uomo create all the time. The difference, however, is that Laurieann does not appear to be good with lifts, flips and more powerful theatrics that could take her excellent choreography over the top, especially for this type of a show. I have witnessed this twice now and it is the choreography, which is why Nigel and Mary did not comment on it but just said the piece was "nothing memorable". Ouch. Victor and Karen will be in the bottom again but I still think they both belong in the Top 10. Their tango outweighed their less-than-stellar hip hop this week and you can only do what the choreographers teach you on So You Think You Can Dance.

Mollee Gray and Nathan Trasoras should be in the bottom three again unless their tween fan base saves them. Their performances were good but their competition is better and the good ship-lollipop-tween-sensation routine just has not boded well for them. Their first performance was a hip hop piece by Jamal Sims. Here, they did a great job, were highly energetic and brought the fun, youthful bravado that hip hop inspires. They hit all the movements, had great tricks and Mollee brought both sensuality and swagger to the routine. I also loved their costumes.

Their second piece was Tyce Diorio's can-can, a new genre debuted on the show. Mollee and Nathan were the perfect couple to perform it but there was still a "nice but..." air to the whole piece. Nathan's pirouettes a la second are always great but like Victor, he needed to show he was more than a one-trick pony. Notice that Victor had no pirouettes this week. Mollee was dancing for her life as well with her aerial turns, cartwheels, flips and splits but she so easily reverts back to looking like she is a little girl in a pageant that it just does not work. I feel bad because I love for younger people to have a chance but both she and Nathan just do not seem ready. There is something missing. And dare I say, it might be maturity. Unfair but true...

Russell Ferguson and Noelle Marsh are probably headed straight for the Top 10 if voters judged by this most recent performance and their work since the beginning. Their first number was a samba by Tony Meredith and Mary Lapatin. It was difficult but they performed it well. I thought it rather unfair for Noelle to have to dance to Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie", especially since she did not really move her own until the last move, as she twisted and sunk her way down to the floor. Nigel said her movement was "more clinical and homogenized". Yikes! Like milk? On the other hand, Russell performed so well and had such carriage, I felt like Noelle might hold him back and sink him to one of the bottom couples.

But Noelle redeemed herself in their contemporary piece by Tyce Diorio. She and Russell were, literally, works of art as Russell "painted with [his] face across her chest" and later used paint to sully their white costumes. But from the opening movement to the initial "vertical hold", they were fantastic. Noelle's lines, extension, feet and layouts were amazing. She put herself to work! Russell's swift and sharp rond de jamb, despite his lackluster crab walk, continued to show his growth. At this point, it is as Nigel says---"I've forgotten you're a street dancer".

Ashleigh DiLello and Jacob Karr's lyrical jazz number was choreographed by Sonya Tayeh and it was so beautiful and graceful. The music, movement and message were superb. The judges said that Ashleigh had "no trace of a ballroom dancer" and that Jacob continued to be "surreal". It is true. The continued blurring of the lines in the genres of these dancers makes the show so wonderful to watch. All of them tend to lose a certain aspect of their individuality and join the collective family called "dance". This is a genre that gives birth to more spirits than a lifetime collection of ordered steps. As choreographer, Laurieann Gibson states later on, "the movement is nothing without purpose". But it seemed as though tonight was Sonya's night. Her pieces were slamming---as fluid numbers of still-shot brilliance---and Ashleigh and Jacob gave them new life.

Their second piece was the cha cha by Jean-Marc Generaux and, wow! Ashleigh showed everybody how much she has grown as a dancer but this time it was reflected in her own genre. She was amazing. Her control of the floor, foot posture and attitude were fantastic. I loved it when she hit multiple spins into a split, came up and pointed at the audience like "what?!" Jacob was a great partner, to be sure, and supported Ashleigh's every move. But her last layout over the chair and perfect leg positioning underscored that, as Adam Shankman outlined, "this is Ashleigh's world and we're all just visiting." They should glide straight into the Top 10; and although I never thought I would say this, I am actually looking forward to seeing husband and wife team, Ryan and Ashleigh, dance together again. I know . . . I know . . .

My bottom three:
Karen and Victor
Mollee and Nathan
Kathryn and Legacy (but they will make it)

Who should go home:
Mollee and Nathan

But who knows? There are a lot of teens out there voting, folks! Stay tuned and until next time, keep dancing!

--Dr. Goddess, BuddyTV Guest Columnist
(Image Courtesy of FOX)

Dr. Goddess is a performing artist, dancer, choreographer, poet and scholar whose been dancing since seven years old, loves the art of dance and has been following So You Think You Can Dance since season one! In many other places in the world, she's known as Kimberly C. Ellis.